11 things you (probably) do not know Sugar

11 things you (probably) do not know Sugar
Really makes you fat? What to do with Cristoforo Colombo? Refined, it hurts the most? Who put him in the bag for the first time? 10 sweet and curious pills, plus a council to give it a rest.

The main protagonist of our tables, often end up on the bench for the prosecution as the main cause of diabetes, tooth decay, obesity and other modern ills: we are talking about sugar, the main body's fuel, food from the complex and curious history, between the pillars of ' world economy, and double-edged sword for our health. Get to know him more closely. Did you know, for example, that ...

1. WE EAT THREE TIMES THAN WE SHOULD. For the World Health Organization, which in 2015 proposed a tightening of guidelines on the maximum amount of natural sugar or added to take, only 5% of total daily calories should come from this source of nourishment (the past was the limit 10%).

It is 25 grams for an adult, equal to 6 teaspoons . In Italy we consume an average of 80 grams per day among those who add and those already present in prepackaged foods. It is about 2 kg of sugar per month. In the world they consume about 70 grams per person; in the US, 160 grams.

2. IT IS NOT ONLY IN DESSERTS. If one is found in abundance in the sandwich bread in ketchup and sauces in general, in the pasta sauces and all breakfast products (yogurt, fruit juices, cereals), which increasingly resemble more - for calorie intake - in true deserts and own. In the United States, three-quarters of food and bottled drinks contain sugar or sweeteners, which add flavor to products low in fat, they change the texture and improve conservation.

3. IT PRODUCES 8,000 YEARS. The sugar cane from which boiling and squeezing is derived sucrose was cultivated in New Guinea in 6000 BC It later spread to the Philippines, in India (where it is mentioned in a text in 400-350 BC) and the rest of Asia. They were the Arabs to take her to Europe, introducing it in the eleventh century in Spain and Sicily (the island saw, under Frederick II, a real expansion of this type of cultivation).

4. ONCE WAS A RARE AND PRECIOUS GOODS. When the year 1000 Venice and Genoa began to import the "Arab rooms", or "senz'api honey," as it was called, the difficulties of cultivation of sugarcane in our latitudes made sugar a rare commodity, sold in pharmacists' shops as a spice to be used sparingly, cough or upset stomach.

A cargo of 100 tons of sugar, in 996, could cost the equivalent of more than one million current EUR 500 times more than they would pay today. In 1200, 450 grams of sugar worth as 360 eggs. Today, because two.

5. IT SPREAD THANKS TO THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. Cristoforo Colombo introduced, in 1493, the cultivation of sugar cane in the New World, and the French colonists, Portuguese and Spanish will soon discovered the potential. The plantations cultivated by African slaves, began to bear much more of the small local crops, and sugar trade spread from America to the rest of the world, making it a more luxurious product, but less expensive and more widespread.

6. THE WHITE ONE IS NO LESS HEALTHY THAN RAW. In both cases it is sucrose (a disaccharide consisting of glucose and fructose). The brown sugar contains, in addition, small amounts of molasses - the dark liquid that separates from the sugar during its spin - in which there are minerals and vitamins. But the amount of sugar we eat are too low to qualify for these substances.

7. WHERE DOES WHAT WE EAT? Mainly from sugar cane (for 65-70%) or sugar beet (about 30%). That even beet ( Beta vulgaris ), in a different variety from the salad, contained sucrose is a more recent discovery, accomplished in 1747 by the German Andreas Marggraf: the latter type of sugar saw its explosion under Napoleon, who encouraged cultivating thousands of hectares. The brown sugar cane is always, because that does not contain molasses from beet. That clear, can be of either type.

8. IT IS NOT THE ONLY ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE '' EPIDEMIC 'OF OBESITY. A major study published in 2015 highlights how the global rise of obesity is going hand in hand with the increase of the daily amount of calories eaten, and not only from sugars. If in 1970 the average American took an average of 2,109 calories, in 2010 it has gone to 2,568 calories.

Also a review of studies on the topic, Lisa Te Morenga (University of Otago, New Zealand) concluded that the "simple" sugars in themselves do not weigh more than other nutrients, for the same calories provided: the problem is that people who eat many sugary foods tend to take in more calories overall, and get fat.

9. WORSE A DRINK OF A SLICE OF PIE. If you've heard, believe it: sugar in liquid form, in fact, does not activate the physiological mechanisms related to satiety that usually make us feel "full" and regulate the intake of calories. What's more, in a can can be the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar of 38 grams (far beyond what we could consume in a day). And with the "diet" soft drinks are no better: as recently demonstrated , are a false solution to the problem.

10. AS THE BAGS WERE BORN? The first appeared in 1909 thanks to the French Ernest Picard, he wanted to protect the sugar from flies and dust microbes. In restaurants, it spreads in 1917. Their content is not the same everywhere. In the United States weigh between 2 and 3 grams, to counter obesity. In Italy among 4:05, 7 in Spain, while in some Nordic countries will get to 10.

11. TWO TRICKS TO REDUCE CONSUMPTION. There are at least two ways to cut without much effort the daily doses of sugar taken: the first is to stop sweeten tea and coffee and to consume sweetened beverages. The second is to make sure that their breakfast is not based desserts: Choose cereals and unsweetened fruit juices, yogurt avoid buying more like creams, eating cakes, cookies and pastries in moderation.